RTW: Victoria and Albert (this blog is officially back in business)

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same. This week's RTW topic is:

If you could travel back to any historical era for research purposes, which would you choose?
 
My first thought was the antebellum South. As a Southerner, I've always been obsessed with GONE WITH THE WIND and thought of writing my own Southern drama, so to see the beauty of the South at its zenith would be pretty cool (not slavery, obviously, but the whole mint juleps and barbecue, chivalrous men, parasoled ladies and Grand Tours thing). But you know, that's the idealized version of the South, one which few Southerners of that time actually experienced, and I'd probably end up as a poor Georgia cracker anyway, so...
 
Having just returned from England, I have a different answer:
 
Victorian England.

She wasn't always like this.

Specifically, a sit-down with Victoria herself.
 
(Hey, if I can time-travel, I can chill with a Sovereign, right?)
 

Not the stuffy, prudish, old Victoria your mind probably jumps to: the young, vivacious, creative, happy Victoria, pre-1861.
 
While in London, Bear and I visited the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, a museum that features rotating exhibitions drawn from the Royal Collection, a massive collection of art and items of historical significance.
 
Currently, the exhibition at the Queen's Gallery is Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, which featured art created by the royal couple, commissioned for them, and collected by them, as well as artifacts from their lives, such as jewelry and clothing.
 
It was magnificent. A highlight of the whole trip.
 

Having seen THE YOUNG VICTORIA earlier this summer, I was interested to learn more about Victoria, who genuinely loved her consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Victoria and Albert's 21 year marriage, cut short when Albert died of typhoid fever at the age of 42 in 1861, was, by all accounts, genuine and true. Royal dynasties have always been known for treating marriage more as a transaction than a love match, and the British monarchy in general is tainted by a long history of loveless marriages, so to learn of a royal couple truly in love was refreshing.
 
But beyond that, Victoria and Albert were amazing people. Victoria was a skilled painter, producing lovely watercolors; Albert composed pieces of music for Victoria; both played piano, both kept journals. They had 9 children, and during the summer they retreated to Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight where they taught the children to garden and cook and bake and hung out with the kids while they made a meal grown by themselves and then sat down as a family to eat it.

Victoria & Albert

Sounds nice, right?
 
Bear and I are creative people, but we feel like we don't have enough time to do the creative things we'd like. I have 2 paintings and Bear has 1, sitting unfinished in our house. I have a keyboard in my living room and a songbook I bought at a Taylor Swift concert waiting to be played. Don't get me started on my scrapbook, which is terribly out of date. And then there's that novel, the last 3 chapters waiting to be edited so I can send it out to betas...
 
Of course, Victoria didn't have Facebook and Twitter and email and TV and cell phones (well, any phones) and... the list goes on. But Victoria ran a nation and its Commonwealth, had 9 kids, and still found time to pursue her passions. 
 
It really makes you reconsider those hours wasted wandering around online, doesn't it?
 
I would enjoy enjoy meeting with Victoria to discuss (if she were so willing) her personal life, her travels, and our shared passion for the creative arts. The driving motivation isn't research, but as that period, which is characterized by the emergence of a British middle class, the Industrial revolution, and vast social, political, and economic progress, is supremely fascinating, I'm sure the experience would eventually find its way into writing.
 
So why pre-1861 Victoria? That was the year of Prince Albert's death, which left Victoria devastated, transforming her into the withdrawn, mourning widow we think of for the remaining 40 years of her life. 
 
Victoria is still the longest reigning Sovereign in British history. In 2015, Queen Elizabeth II will surpass Victoria's 63 years and take the title for herself at the age of 89.
 
So how about you? If you could go back in time to research your next project (or just for fun), where would you go?